Diet of Worms
Diet of Worms
A gathering of princes and officials of the Holy Roman Empire, who met in the town of Worms, Germany, to deal with the revolutionary religious doctrines espoused by a monk and university scholar, Martin Luther, the Diet was convened in early 1521 by Emperor Charles V, who commanded Luther himself to appear in order to debate and defend his ideas. Elector Frederick of Saxony, who was sympathetic to Luther's writings, demanded and received a guarantee of safe passage.
Luther's teachings—including the doctrine of justification by faith alone—had been disputed by Pope Leo X in his bull (decree) Exsurge Domine. The pope demanded that Luther retract forty-one assertions he had made in his writings and in the Ninety-five Theses, a pronouncement he had composed in the town of Wittenberg. But when Johann Eck, speaking for the archbishop of Trier, challenged Luther, the monk refused to recant. He then left the Diet under a safe-conduct pass before its members could take any action against him. As the Diet concluded, the emperor issued the Edict of Worms, which banned Luther's writings and commanded his arrest. Returning to Saxony, Luther assumed a disguise and managed to survive the edict while his revolutionary teachings set off the Protestant Reformation in Germany.
Worms, Diet of
Worms, Diet of
Diet of Worms
Diet, recorded from late Middle English, comes from medieval Latin dieta ‘day's work, wages, etc.’, also ‘meeting of councillors’.